Should Mattel have polls before they decide to switch things on figures?

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Should Mattel have polls before they make decisions like switching forearms on a figure? I mean we are the fans who are buying the figures so decisions like that should be made by us!

What do you think?

No not so much as the descisions should be made by us, but to be fair at least get our input on it so that they will know if the outcry would be positive or negative. It's not so hard to just make a post saying "hey guys design was thinking of trying this on this figure, would you at all be interested in this? YES or NO?" Thats polite and it also shows some respect to those who paid for a subscription a year in advance because Day of sale buyers can say yes i'm buying that figure or no i'm passing on it, but sub holders already paid for it.

Originally Posted by nuno

Swapping an already sculpted forearm piece is such a dumb and wrong idea that it should not even be considered to be in a poll.

They should make polls about color, engeneering, but never a poll about artistic interpretation and leave that to the 4 Hoursemen.

I agree 100% How many times have we heard Scott say we leave those decisions choices up to the Horsemen on the figures look.
Then Design goes and pulls this crap making Scotts Horsemen comment not true at all. Designs only job is to take the horsemens sculpt and turn it into a working action figure so that it can go into production.

Yes changes like sorceress wings need to be made because they found if left the way the horsemen sculpted her, on the drop test the wings broke off the arms, but never just swap out a figures arm parts because you think it's creative and cool looking, I mean come on the Horsemen weren't even consulted on this.

Last edited by mjw41; April 25, 2012 at 09:04am.
Reason: Automerged Doublepost

I'm not sure I trust the fan community more than Mattel most times, but I agree that any odd choice like that of Stinkor's arms could benefit from a quick poll.

I certainly don't want "us" taking over design though.

Not to sound like a creepy cheerleader for Uki, but it's nice to know there is at least one person on this forum who is extremely positive & friendly all the time. I don't think I could be that nice even if you paid me. If we ever give out awards for "forum member of the month", Uki gets my vote. -Mr. Shokoti

I'm not sure I trust the fan community more than Mattel most times, but I agree that any odd choice like that of Stinkor's arms could benefit from a quick poll.
I certainly don't want "us" taking over design though.

In fairness, the fan community has been right about major issues probably more than Mattel (I'm looking at you, Smash Blade He-Man, Infinite Heroes, etc, etc). Mattel's decisions are so consistently bad in the last decade that some of us actually do as good a job as the folks being paid there when it comes to what will work and what will not. There's this belief that just because we're fans and Mattel's folks are big businessmen that we have nothing to offer and our words should be ignored. That hasn't proven to be the case many times over the last several years. Fans aren't always right, either, but neither is Mattel. Sage advice is sage advice no matter the source.

As for the poll, why? I don't believe the switch was deliberate at all, so how do you do a poll on it? "Do you want us to continue to randomly switch parts on our figures with no rhyme or reason?"

The solution is to follow the Horsemen's lead on aesthetic issues as much as possible, minimize the design team's input to the more technical areas they are supposed to deal with, and wake up whoever is supposed to be keeping an eye the QC for the line, because I can hear the snoring from here...

"I will use this power for all the good that can be done, to work for peace, to encourage virtue, and above all, to preserve life in all its forms..." Superman

I'm not sure I trust the fan community more than Mattel most times, but I agree that any odd choice like that of Stinkor's arms could benefit from a quick poll.

I certainly don't want "us" taking over design though.

Since we are the customers, we're going to have a better sense of what we'd want over Mattel's designers. Some of us have better sense too, as shown with the whole Stinkor reverse forearm debacle or Sorceress' wings.

But this thread might be assuming that Stinkor's reversed arms weren't a mistake!

I think having polls would at least hold them accountable for mistakes like stinkors forearms. Then they can't fall back on the "design wanted to change things" excuse. I just feel that if we are buying these figures maybe out of the ordinary changes should be polled. Like maybe have a poll to decide if ram man gets two legs or the vintage attached legs. Things like that may benefit if it is a majority decision.

I'm not sure I trust the fan community more than Mattel most times, but I agree that any odd choice like that of Stinkor's arms could benefit from a quick poll.

I certainly don't want "us" taking over design though.

Thing is, the Four Horsemen already designed Stinkor....and they did it correctly....Mattel supposedly took it upon themselves to change their design, a poll about the forearms wouldn't be us deciding on design, but making sure Mattel doesn't mess up a perfectly fine figure again on purpose by changing the original 4H design, that would be the reason.

I do think there have been plenty of issues where polls could really work. This isn't a line where Mattel can argue that their business professionals are making decisions for "mothers and kids" purchasing the toys at mass market; The buyers (unless they get the figures from a reseller) all have a direct connection with Mattel. They actually log onto the Mattel's website and subscribe or purchase these figures directly.

I know the SDCC polls are cute and bring "excitement" to the event, but track record of credibility has definitely been called into question by folks who were there and they limit the folks making a decision, possibly even including some non-customers and non-subscribers.

How could these polls have helped? I'm thinking a poll asking whether buyers wanted animated or toy inspired Star Sisters? Reversing Stinkor's limbs or not? Sorceress w/ regular hand or spell casting hand? Horde Prime w/ a crossbow or a staff? No other toyline asks for such a costly upfront commitment as MOTUC, so this might be a nice way to recognize that and keep fans in the loop. Every subscriber (or purchaser with so many Mattycollector.com purchases to their account) gets the option to vote on their log-in page.

The only thing I see about this would be that some decisions have to be made further out and might kill the excitement of some reveals. I'm ok with that, as I'd much rather have better product over some reveals. If I want a surprise, I'll go watch a movie or read a book.

It's a good idea... if they listen. And God forbid there is a mistake after that !!!

Originally Posted by Canada-Man

Subscribers should be the deciding vote if polling was to take place. Its only fair.

Not saying pickers shouldn't vote but just not random people. Like a minimum of 10 matty purchases of motuc line would be an invitation to vote

I would trust the subscribers to make good decisions... but I don't think anyone would vote on these polls that didn't have a vested interest in the outcome; so why discriminate against the cherrypickers? Now that I think about it... why even bring that up?

Last edited by He-Dude; April 25, 2012 at 12:51pm.
Reason: Automerged Doublepost

Who would get to vote? Just sub holders? Would you get one vote per sub? Is that fair to cherry pickers? Wouldn't that give resellers like BBTS too much sway?

Would a simple majority win? So if we got 4,556 votes for a red/orange Ram-Man and 4,555 for red/green Ram-Man, then essentially half the fans don't get what they want. But "we" picked it, so that would be what everyone got stuck with.

What would be the standard for something being voted on? Just voting on deco changes wouldn't have addressed the Stinkor issue. So, deco changes and parts swaps? Do you really want DR tabulating polls for every potential parts swap? (it'd be DR, b/c they have the info on who has subs and how many they have)

Originally Posted by Dark Sorceress

they fix all the poll's they have had so they will do what they want anyway

There would be that concern from fans, for sure. Even if their polls were 100% legit, how would they ever convince the fans of that? The minute a poll went up, you know a duplicate would get posted on the Org asking people how they voted in the official poll. And there'd be a giant thread of people arguing if the differences between the official poll and the Org poll were real (the poll is rigged) or not (the Org is only a fraction of the whole fanbase).

Originally Posted by Uki

I'm not sure I trust the fan community more than Mattel most times, but I agree that any odd choice like that of Stinkor's arms could benefit from a quick poll.

I certainly don't want "us" taking over design though.

Yes. Just being a fan doesn't mean you'll make good design decisions. I trust the professionals over a bunch of random people on the net.

Im sorry guys I find this hilarious that "we" should be making these choices LOL,

first of all never going to happen.

second there is almost not one single issue everyone in this community can agree on.

third, even if they did polls, people would call them fixed when they didnt come out the way they wanted. Anyone remember the Man-e-faces color poll?

fourth, and Im sorry i love a lot of you guys, but I sure as heck dont want you guys making these choices LOL

Give the fans some credit. I'll bet you we wouldn't have made stupid decisions such as having a Man-At-Arms variant without accessories we've been asking for since 2008 or swapping Stinkor's forearms. We would have vetoed the hell out of that choice.

Mattel HAS made some rather questionable choices in the past, prompting this thread's existence.